Digitizing the Nigerian Marketplace
For as long as we can remember, the market is a place of great significance for all settlements. Like the fireplace or the Television around which families gather not just for warmth or information but for the deeper meaning attached therein, the marketplace has always served as a focal point not just for commerce, but gossip and communality, and everything that could characterize a livelihood. In Africa, the kingship of the market stands even taller amidst the rapid urbanization. Whether in the bustling streets of Casablanca, or the notoriously crowded roadways of Lagos; from the modern plazas of Joburg or Nairobi’s famous walls, market days draw people from everywhere and remains a strong fabric in the stories we tell about Africa.
It is therefore unsurprising that the market is not left out of the rapid digitalization of African society that has transpired in recent times. Ten years ago it was 2, but now it is 7 out of 10 young Africans who use an internet enabled device. Instigated by the emergence of computing technology, wave after wave of innovation sweeps the world, and after seeming to struggle a little, the enterprising spirit of the young African emerges, defiantly resisting the waves and better yet surfing on them. Nairaland, Payporte, Jumia, Andela, hotelsng and Konga among a host of others are what happens when the vast potential of the internet and the cultural values of the African are harnessed together, in a partnership that is set to forever transform Africa as we know it.
The king of the African marketplace is and has always been farm products. In this truth, there is an opportunity to take agro-products out of the constraints of traditional markets and into the possibilities of the digital marketplace, to give millions of farmers the opportunity to reach a bigger market.
eFarmers Nigeria (www.efarmers.ng) boldly takes on this challenge of bridging the gap between the supply and demand of Agro Products within African communities and indeed the international market
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